The National Affairs Desk of Glorious Noise

If 6 years of a Republican controlled federal government has taught us anything, it's that Republicans have absolutely no ability to effectively lead and run the country. And why would they? Grover Norquist, a guiding light in the Republican ranks and head of Americans for Tax Reform, once infamously said "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." He's a people person, who apparently enjoys drowning. And like so many Republicans, hates government. So why do they want to run it, then?

In any event, here are some choice examples, recently documented, of how bad Republicans actually are at government:

- China in space: An NYT article about how the Bush administration knew China would be testing an antisatellite missile, but didn't try to stop them because they didn't want to negatively impact the missle defense fantasy the neocons have.

- OSHA neglects worker safety: Another NYT article, this one about how OSHA and other agencies are now run by industry reps, and how OSHA in particular has dropped its responsibilty to protect workers.

Comments

It has often been said that the Republicans perform better as a check on Democrats than as actual leaders. The only real reasons that I can see for them to enter government are 1) rewrite law to favor business owners and, thus, government "service" becomes an investment of sorts, and 2) impose christian fundamentalist morality on everyone because the rest of us need to be saved, or so I'm told.

I've long held that the Republicans make a better opposition party than a governing body. I do think it's good to have traditional Republican issues (defense, tax reform, etc) debated, but this current GOP is neither traditionally conservative nor are they good at governing.